Reading Security status via CGate?

I am trying to read the level of a Security Group used in Application 1. Not knowing who to ask first I decided to post the question here before I approach the Comfort guys.

When I start CGate and enter the following commands I get the following results:

Code:

get //MIDSTRM/254/1/44 level
401 Bad object or device ID.
get //MIDSTRM/254/1/44 level
300 //MIDSTRM/254/1/44: level=255
get //MIDSTRM/254/1/44 level
300 //MIDSTRM/254/1/44: level=0

The above is my StudyDoor zone, firstly it was in a closed state and I got the 'Bad Object ID' error. I then opened the door and it returned 255, after closing it it returned 0 which is 100% correct.

I came to the conclusion that the group value is only available once the state of an object has changed at least once and from that point CGate will report correctly on it.

Is this normal behaviour because I also get the same when I use a 'phantom lighting group' that is not assigned to any output unit. Thinking back I seem to recall that MMI's are used to initially sync the network so that everyone knows the state of the output units. If a group does not belong to an output unit then it will be in an 'unknown' state until such time it's set to a particular value.

How can I get the initial states of Application 1 groups? Is it something on the Comfort side that needs to be investigated or is there something I am missing? Any assistance would be appreciated.

Ingo

 

When C-Gate scans a network, it adds any group addresses found into its internal model. Any groups which aren't reported by any units are regarded as being "phantom" groups. Until C-Gate sees a message setting the level of a phantom group, it will not know that it exists, and will also have no level for it. Once C-Gate sees a message for a group, it will add it into the internal model and store its level.

Some devices have the ability to be triggered to broadcast the levels of everything they control to help with this sort of situation. I don't know whether the Comfort panel has this feature or not.

 

Thanks Darren, I suspect it does because I see the behaviour of the 'phanton' groups only under certain rare conditions. If the Comfort system resets then it broadcasts all it's group states and then CGate reports on it correctly.

Ingo